PARANORMALCY: My Review (finally)

Paranormalcy

The Blurb:

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie's always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is a mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she’s falling for a shape-shifter, and she’s the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal.

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.
So much for normal. 

My Rating: 5/5

My Thoughts:

This book rocked my socks off, and I went into it--like everyone else--with super high expectations. It's hard NOT to expect greatness when you've been reading the author's work (okay, just her blog, but still) since you first discovered her existence. I just knew I was going to love her book because her blog made me fall in love with her voice from day one. 

I was not disappointed. Somehow Kiersten White succeeded in melding her blog voice with her novel voice, which I think is pretty rare. (I know I use a slightly different version of my voice for my blog than I do when I'm penning manuscripts.) Because of this, if you've been reading Kiersten's blog for any length of time, you will feel like you are coming home when you crack open the spine of Paranormalcy. 

Aside from a delightfully genuine teen voice, there are many other reasons I drank this book up, root beer, ice cream, and all. 

• Holy Pacing, Plotman! It was perfectly paced, taking me from introductions to inciting conflict to serious complications without once seeming contrived. This kind of seamless continuity suggests a master storyteller, and was certainly not something I expected from a debut novel. Kudos to Kiersten White again! 
• Prophecy, Foreshadowing, and Clues, Oh My! For people who like a little mystery to solve, Paranormalcy has that, too! How are the paranormal beings dying? Who is doing this and why? Will Evie give into Reth's seductive powers or go for Lend's more wholesome mischief?  
• Blend of Dark and Light: Even though some serious sad stuff is going on in her life, Evie's story never got too dark because Evie's just not a dark person. She is too busy relishing the novelty of high school lockers or feeling tingly crush-love or comparing real life to her favorite high school soap opera. As easy as it is to fall in love (okay, love is a strong word and I'm not trying to get a restraining order--we'll say author-crushdom) with Kiersten via her blog, it was that easy to fall for Evie's strong-yet-vulnerable, spunky personality. 
• The Paranormal Beings! Oh, the Paranormal Beings! There were some super interesting creatures in this book that I did not expect to find, like water elementals! And something truly and wonderfully bizarre that I'm not going to give away. I'll just say it was a brilliant creation and served as a brain-tingling, heart-tingling metaphor as well--about love and emptiness and the difference between using people vs. loving them.

So, to recap, five things I did not expect:

1. super pacing
2. deep metaphors
3. obscure paranormal beings
4. ethical dilemmas
5. twists galore

You are not likely to find this one in your local library (checked in, at least), so I recommend you hurry to your favorite bookstore and buy this pink and black book before it sells out and you have to wait until the next printing. Because you will be so sad if that happens. 

Now, because I can't resist a fun contest, here's my entry in the At Home with Paranormalcy Contest at Kiersten's blog:

Reading my Children's Bible with PARANORMALCY (and little guy)